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LONG-TERM GOAL The Pakistan Government wants to build community model schools in 4,000 rural villages
Pishin is a town just north of the Baluchistan capital of Quetta, in Pakistan. It’s schooltime. Several girls are talking in front of a video camera:
Do you go to school?”
“No.”
“Why?
“Because my father doesn’t let me…”
“I don’t go to school,” says another.
“Because my father doesn’t let me.”
It seems to be a common theme.
Education was no longer something to fear
Education is knowledge. And knowledge is the currency of the Information Age.
Aside from its obvious economic value, education brings with it huge social benefits, not merely in terms of health and personal well-being, but in the natural transfer of knowledge to others—children, relatives, and friends—a multiplier effect. That’s why education is arguably the most important criterion for exiting the poverty cycle.
HOMEWORK A suportive atmosphere in the home is crucial to prevent dropout
Enter the village of Qadirabad. Three hours from Quetta, it is at the northwest edge of the country near the border of Afghanistan and Iran. It is dusty. It is dry. In summer it’s 40°C, in winter it’s –5°C. It rained in February for the first time in 7 years. The water table fell from 55 meters (m) to over 122 m during the drought.
OPPORTUNITY Each year, 7,500 girls are entering grade 1 or 2 who previously would never have had the chance
It’s been just 10 years since a girls’ school opened—in a room in someone’s home. With assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), today it has moved to a four-classroom building with 213 students, from nursery level to grade 5. These children have a chance. Many more still do not.
From ground level, the reasons are simple. Poverty by necessity forces a short-term outlook. Girls are needed to help with housework and in the fields. Pragmatically and religiously, school distance is a concern. No chaperone, no go. And there’s a historical, cultural influence that restricts gender equity. Today people want more. And ADB is helping.
I used to tell them stories from the prophet...so when these girls would go home, they used to tell their parents, 'this is what our teachers told us in school'
- Shaheen Lajwer, teacher and advocate, on how she convinced parents to enroll their daughters
The Second Girls’ Primary School Sector Project was a 5-year plan to help the Pakistan Government in its long-term goal of building community model schools in each of the country’s 4,000 rural villages (union councils). The $78.8 million Project ($45 million from the ADB’s Asian Development Fund [ADF], $16 million from the OPEC Fund, and $17.8 million from the Pakistan Government) covered about a quarter of those villages by the end of 2001.
The resulting benefits are clear. Each year, 7,500 girls entered grade 1 or 2; they previously would never have had the opportunity. More dramatically, an estimated 120,000 girls, who would have been forced to drop out, stayed the course. Each year, 35,000 girls are entering middle schools who would not have been able to otherwise.
“It is clear that the return on investment in education is high, both economically and socially. And that’s true whether employed at home or outside. But the barriers remain high. How does one convince a person, a community, of the value added of education?
Shaheen Lajwer, 25, is a teacher—since she was 15—and a committed advocate of gender equity in education. She works in Pishin.
“We used to go to different houses regularly for 3 or 4 days and try to convince the parents by giving examples from the Koran…that they should send their girls to school,” she says. “I used to tell them stories from the prophet…so when these girls used to go home, they used to tell their parents, ‘this is what our teachers told us in school.’”
It worked. Education was no longer something to fear. She began with 13 students. When an ADB-funded school opened in 2000, there were 150. Today, there are 220.
This needs to happen across Baluchistan, a province comprising 40% of Pakistan, but with a population of just six million.
"After finishing school, I'll go to college... and then into the army"
- Saima and her proud grandfather
It is a need that spans across the region. And it is being addressed. Pakistan statistics show that 55% of 7-year-old girls have been enrolled in school. For those aged 30–39, only 26% have ever been enrolled. The trend is positive. But there is much to be done, and much of that involves education itself. The rest, as usual, is finance. The three main reasons for not enrolling girls 7–12 years old based on a school year 2000/01 survey were school expense (26%), lack of parental approval (26%), and distance from school (16%). Those may remain the basic issues.
But there is another generic issue. The UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000 state that by 2015, all boys and girls will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling, and that gender disparity should be eliminated.
In school year 2000/01, 93% of Pakistan primary school-aged males were in school, while only 54% of the females were registered. But the more critical barrier is for Pakistan to achieve the goal of education for all by 2015—a 100% capacity increase in primary spaces for children must be provided, the vast majority for girls. This is the challenge the Pakistan Government has taken on, and ADB, through its ADF lending window, will continue to assist.
NEW TEACHERS ADB has helped train 9,000 community model school staff under the Project
And it’s not just providing villages with schools. Quality teaching gives quality education. ADB has helped train 9,000 community model school staff under the Project. Aside from training in the use of annotated teacher guidebooks, ADB helped train these teachers in interactive radio instruction in both English and math.
Most important, the will to learn is there.
Back in Qadirabad, standing beside an obviously proud grandfather, another girl named Saima is talking in front of a video camera, daring to say what once was unimaginable. “After finishing school, I’ll go to college…and then into the army.”
Much still needs to change before her dream can come true. But when there’s a will….
—With contributions from Adrian Brown, Asia-Pacific Vision
Find out more about ADB's activities in Pakistan
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